Ineffective Assistance of Counsel

A defense attorney who has since been disbarred prejudiced his absent client when he referred to him as a “Negro”
before potential jurors, a judge wrote, but the offending word wasn’t enough for the Court of Appeals to grant post-conviction
relief.

The Indiana Court of Appeals will not reverse a decision to deny a man’s petition for post-conviction relief after he
was convicted of three counts of felony robbery, despite his argument that the third charge of felony robbery was added against
him in an untimely manner.

The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld a foster father’s conviction of molesting his former foster daughter after
the foster father claimed that his counsel at trial was ineffective in a manner that was prejudicial.

The habeas corpus petition by a prisoner at the Miami Correctional Facility was correctly denied in federal court, the 7th
Circuit Court of Appeals held Monday. The man argued his appellate counsel provided ineffective assistance of counsel regarding
his habitual offender adjudication.

The Indiana Court of Appeals upheld the denial of a man’s post-conviction relief petition after it found any ineffectiveness
of counsel the man received did not affect the outcome of his case in his decision to plead guilty to Class A felony neglect
of a dependent.

The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in a split decision the Indiana Court of Appeals did not make any error in federal
law when it upheld a man’s consecutive 40-year sentences for three convictions of child molestation.

The Indiana Court of Appeals reduced a man’s aggregate sentence by three years after it found he was denied effective
assistance of counsel when his counsel did not bring up a statutory limitation issue.

Two typewritten letters and handwritten notes between a now-deceased defense attorney and a former prosecutor have divided
the Indiana Court of Appeals over whether a plea agreement had actually been negotiated.

The Supreme Court of the United States says a Michigan man convicted of murder and armed robbery does not deserve a
new trial even though his lawyer was absent for 10 minutes during the original trial.

The Indiana Court of Appeals affirmed a man’s conviction of Class D felony possession of marijuana in excess of 30 grams
after finding that the claims he wanted his attorney to raise at trial would not have prevailed.

The Indiana Court of Appeals reversed a man’s convictions of Class A felony child molesting and Class B felony sexual
misconduct with a minor based on his sexual advances toward his stepdaughter when she was in junior high and high school.
The judges acknowledged as a result of their decision, the stepfather won’t face any legal consequences for those actions,
but the state had a duty to present sufficient evidence to support those convictions.

Attorneys for an Indianapolis woman convicted of killing six children and a 40-year-old man in a head-on traffic collision
asked a judge for a new trial Thursday, arguing in part she had inadequate legal counsel.

A defense attorney’s failure to raise the consecutive sentencing limitation prejudiced his client, the majority of a
Court of Appeals panel ruled, reversing denial of post-conviction relief for a man convicted of multiple burglaries. The court
remanded for resentencing to trim six years off a 28-year prison term.

The Indiana Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected a defendant’s claim that his attorneys were ineffective for not arguing
that, based on a Supreme Court case, his conviction for Class B felony criminal confinement should be reversed or reduced.
But the man inappropriately relies on the case, and what he claims his attorneys should have argued is not the law.

Even though the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals spelled out in a 17-page opinion what defense counsel should have done during
a bench trial, the appellate panel ultimately concluded the deficient representation did not prejudice the case.

A man who was represented by a law student at his guilty plea hearing and claimed he received ineffective assistance of counsel
could not persuade a panel of the Indiana Court of Appeals to reverse a denial of his petition for post-conviction relief.

A man who pleaded guilty in 1997 to raping his 6-year-old daughter committed a crime so heinous that his sentence of 50 years
in prison was justified, and he raised no issues in a post-conviction relief appeal on which the sentence could be reduced.